


Murder Mystery

by koalaboy



Category: Constantine: The Hellblazer (Comics), Hellblazer, Hellblazer & Related Fandoms, Justice League Dark (2017), Justice League Dark (Comics), The Demon (DCU Comics)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23665636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalaboy/pseuds/koalaboy
Summary: Jason Blood needs help with a Justice League case of a woman with no history of ever being alive, who died under mysterious circumstances. He comes to the notorious Laughing Magician—John Constantine—for advice, and finds out he’s connected to the case more than he knows.Set in an alternate universe where John fully embraces his role as the Laughing Magician and takes on his niece Gemma as his apprentice
Relationships: Jason Blood/John Constantine, Jason Blood/John Constantine/Etrigan, John Constantine & Gemma Masters
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Murder Mystery

Jason knocked on the door of the House of Mystery and waited. There was a shuffle inside and then it swung open. A young, pale girl leaned against the wooden frame. Her makeup was dark, her head half-shaven, eyebrows pierced, and a torn-up shirt to complete the look. Her eyes travelled up and down Jason and she cocked an eyebrow. The judgemental stare of a teenager was not something he could ever get used to, even after all these years.

“You’re not the Uber eats guy, are you?” she stated, more than asked. 

“I… wasn’t aware the House had a tangible address.” 

She smirked, “When I want it to, it does. What do you want?”

“My name is Jason Blood,” he began, “I’m from the Justice L—“

“Uncle John!” she called, tossing her head over her shoulder, “One of your lame friends is here!”

“Shit!” came John’s voice from deep within the house.

The girl looked at him more intensely than she had before, “Justice League ID.”

“What?”

“The ID, I want to see it. The House doesn’t let just any demon in, you know. There’s something off about you. I can sense it.”

Jason sighed in annoyance and produced the small card of identification the Justice League had issued him. It allowed him entrance into almost anywhere. She snatched it and examined it closely.

“Alright,” she said, handing it back and running her fingers over the wood of the archway to lower the protections, “C’mon.”

She turned and Jason followed her inside. The House was old and it creaked as they walked. The girl led him into what looked like the kitchen and dining area. Magical artifacts spilled out of every crevice. He had never seen so many, nor in such a state of disarray. Even his own collection had some sort of order to it.

“Water’s in the fridge, I’m not gettin’ it for you,” she muttered.

“Thank you,” he said as politely as he could, “What’s your name, young lady?” 

She gagged, physically repulsed, “Sod off, you old creep.”

“Gemma.” The Laughing Magician’s voice was stern as he walked the last few steps down into the room. He wiped what Jason could smell was blood off of his hands and tossed the rag away into the kitchen sink. It was strange to see him without his extravagant coat, in nothing but a tee-shirt and jeans; he almost could have looked normal if it weren’t for the scars that ran along his arms and covered any semblance of normal-looking skin. Gemma grumbled and moved to start scrubbing the blood from the rag.

“So sorry, had to take care of a little family business,” he explained, although it only made Jason have far more questions. Generally, he’d tried to stay away from the Constantine bloodline. Bad news, the lot of them.

“You said I could bring you my case and you’d take a look?” Jason prompted. The House made him - or Etrigan - uneasy.

“Sure. One sec,” he smiled up at him and then sighed, “Gemma, give Jason here his wallet back.”

“Oh, she didn’t even lay a finger on me—“

Sure enough, Gemma produced Jason’s wallet from her pocket and begrudgingly handed it over. He stared in shock and took it, almost speechless. Usually he was good with these kinds of things.

“And the cash. Apologise, luv,” he added.

“Bastard,” she spat, tossing the crumpled notes in Jason’s lap, “Sorry you’re not as fast as you should be, old man.”

John groaned and waited for Gemma to go to her room to sulk before he continued. He flinched slightly as her bedroom door slammed shut. Obviously, there was tension between the two of them.

“Fuck, sorry. Jus’ lost her Ma an’ Pa a couple months ago. S’been rough.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Was there an accident?”

“Murder-suicide,” John corrected. 

Jason went to say something, but John had already brandished a cigarette and used the misdirection of the movement to take the casefile and have it open on his lap. Jason tried not to show his annoyance at being tricked so easily.

“Usually, I just go down to Hell and have a chat with the victims, get a description of the killer. This soul got lucky. I was hoping you could have a look at the body and tell me what happened the night they were killed,” he explained.

“Synchronicity wave travelling usually works best when the person is alive, but I’ll see what I can do,” John leaned forward, an eager grin on his lips, “I imagine the police are looking for a ‘who’ and we’re looking for a ‘what’.”

Jason nodded, “Yes, something like that. I… am aware that I’ll owe you a favour if you do this.”

“Not a fan of being in debt?”

“Not to your family,” he replied to which John let out a laugh, cold and unsettling.

“It’s Gemma you need’a watch out for.”

“As I’ve learned.”

John pursed his lips, flipping over the pages in the file, “Can you get us into the morgue now?”

“Yes. Uh, ‘us’?” 

“Yeah, Gem’s what you might call my protege. I’ll let her have a crack at it. Let me get me coat, mate.”

John stood, his legs swinging wildly as he flipped himself off of the chair. He grabbed his coat from its stand and pulled a few artefacts that Jason wasn’t at all familiar with into a bag, which he slung around his shoulder.

“Oi, Gem!” He called.

“What?!” Came her voice, rock music turned down only slightly.

“Wanna come see a dead body?” He gave Jason a wink and in a matter of moments Gemma emerged from her room. She practically ran down the stairs, pausing to grab her leather jacket and then joining them both at the door.

“Let’s fucking go,” she said.

“I caught a cab here,” Jason began to explain, but John held his hand up and stopped him. He opened the door and stepped through. They entered directly into the bottom floor of Gotham Hospital, where the body was being held. The GCPD morgue was already full and only half of the freezers worked there anyway.

“Cool, innit?” Gemma said, as she stepped past Jason.

He followed, and went to swipe his Justice League ID in the pin pad to unlock the door, but John held his hand up again. Jason was getting annoyed. 

“Let Gem do it,” he said.

“What, swipe the card?”

“No, get us in.”

Gemma looked between them, “Really? But it’s easier if he just—“

“Just have a go, luv,” John said, patting her on the shoulder and angling her to face the keypad. “Millions of people have come here. Every day, all the time, they’ve pressed the same four digits. All those timelines, all the possibilities converging here at this single point. Try an’ feel it. See it.”

Gemma sighed, closing her eyes and running her fingers over the numbers. She could see Gary, the intern and Madeleine, the maternity nurse coming down here for a smoke. Jacob, the doctor with a fucked up fetish. Hospital staff and cleaners and coroners, all of them pressing the same pin. 

“Five, six, one, nine,” she muttered as she pressed the keys. The door clicked open. She beamed at John, who smiled proudly back at her.

“Good job, Gems.”

Jason put his hands in his pockets and shook his head as he followed them into the morgue. It would have been quicker if they used his card. He unlocked one of the compartments and pulled the slab out, pulling back the plastic so they could see the body.

“Fuckin’ Christ,” Gemma murmured, her eyes wide as she took in the horror first hand. There was nothing particularly upsetting about it, but it was the first time she’d seen a dead body since her mum and dad had been killed. This one had particularly nasty-looking sounds and a symbol etched into their left breast. Gemma had never seen it before.

“Batman found her in the front garden of Arkham. No obvious cause of death until they looked inside of her. It appears to have been…” Jason tilted his head a little, “A case of spontaneous internal combustion. No evidence of any fire on the outside. Only that sigil.”

“Mental patient?” John asked. He crossed his arms, eyes scanning the body for any hint of demonic interference. 

Jason shook his head, “Visiting, as far as I can tell. She provided company and social interaction to the elderly patients in the dementia ward.”

John sneered, “Maybe she got what was comin’, mate. Only one type of person hangs around that place. Could’ve had some fucked up thing going on with the old sods. Besides, ain’t there a gate to hell in that basement of theirs?”

“Yes, but it wasn’t active when this occurred. I’m sure of it.”

John hummed in thought, “Why don’t you take a look, luv, see if anything jumps out at you?”

He turned around to look at Gemma. She pulled her coat around herself. She’d never been allowed to use so much magic at one time. 

“Dunno if I’m ready.”

“M’right here, kiddo. Don’t you trust your uncle John?”

“Not one fucking bit,” she said, but she stepped towards the body anyway.

It was psychologist Carl Jung who first put a name to the type of energy Gemma was attempting to harness. He called it ‘synchronicity’ - the theory that things did not always have a causal relationship, but were connected by meaning instead. Coincidences, lucky guesses, beginner’s luck. The Laughing Magicians had realised this long before him, before Etrigan and Jason were even bonded. Synchronicity wave travelling was their speciality. It allowed someone to make their own luck, to be in the right place at the right time. And, in some cases, to see the coincidences and random meaningful events that led to a person being right there in front of them. Everyone was connected, not by chance, but by synchronicity. Gemma had only just begun to see things, but, to John’s dismay and grief, she was part of the Laughing Magician family tree. Gemma swallowed hard, staring at the body in front of her. Flashes of memories and events swarmed her vision. Her breathing quickened.

“Her mother loved yellow daises. It was the anniversary of her death. On the way into the hospital she walked past a yellow daisy so she bent down to pick it. It’s winter and flowers don’t grow in Arkham’s dry soil, but it was there. When she stood up the man was there. If she’d walked past the flower she wouldn’t have seen him, but now she did… daft old bastard in a pointy hat,” she opened her eyes, looked around, and then gave a shrug, “That’s it.”

“That’s it?” Jason groaned, “A yellow flower and a man with a pointy hat?”

“We’re not bloody psychic, you rude cunt,” she spat, “That’s what I saw, like. So lay off it.”

“What about the sigil, then? Got anything for that?”

Gemma shrugged again, “Could be some white people nonsense. Maybe she thought it looked cool.”

John was leaning against the wall and flicking an unlit cigarette through his fingers. He was trying not to smoke around Gemma, secondary smoke and all that. He had a look of recognition in his eyes that made Jason suspicious.

“What?” Jason snapped, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Funny, isn’t it?” John began, “Batman assigning you this case an’ all. Convenient that this happened in Gotham, the town you live in, near the Hell gate you use, in the front garden of the place the only Justice League member that gives any kind of weight to magic frequents on a daily basis.”

“What are you getting at?” 

“I was just as clueless as you ‘til Gemma mentioned the man. That’s when I recognised the seal. I’m surprised you don’t recognise it, you’ve got one just like it, only it’s hidden away real good. Magic’s sneaky like that.”

Jason frowned, narrowing his eyes, “What do you mean?”

John pointed to the symbol on the woman, “That’s old magic. Merlin’s magic.”

Jason’s lip curled up in anger, revealing enlarged canines underneath. The cocky look of satisfaction on John’s face wasn’t helping him calm down either. 

Gemma let out a laugh of disbelief, “Wait, Merlin actually looked like that? Pointy wizard hat, cape, and all? What a prick.”

“Indeed,” Jason growled.

“Case file said no family, no prints on file, no birth certificate, no record of existence, right? Oh, she had a family. If I were to have a lucky guess—and I’m pretty good with these—I’d say she did have a family. She just outlived them. By a long, long time,” John paused so he could let the anticipation hang in the air before delivering the final blow, “You didn’t think you were the only one Merlin bound a demon to, now, did you?” 

“I would have known, I-I would have seen it... or felt it...” Jason struggled to grasp the situation. He refused to believe he had gone this long without recognising another person in his predicament.

”Maybe not for as long as you, but that’s a soul-bonding seal if I’ve ever seen one.”

Jason was ignoring his words, trying desperately to comprehend the implications of it all.

”Guys. Guys!” Gemma yelled. It broke through the intense glaring-competition he and John were having. “Fucking look.”

They both followed Gemma’s pointed finger to look at the body. Its skin aged before their eyes, hair greying rapidly as wrinkles appeared and thousands of years of living finally caught up with flesh.

“That’s what Jason ‘ere looks like before he puts his makeup on in the mornin’,” John teased, nudging Gemma with his elbow. She laughed, burying her face into his arm.

Jason looked at the two of them, jealous of their fuck-all attitude. His heart pounded in his chest and felt like it was sinking its way down to his stomach.

”I need a fucking drink,” he muttered.

”I have a full bar back home,” John offered.

Gemma’s eyes brightened, “Can I have a drink t—“

“No,” John said sternly.


End file.
